Posts by Steve B

PM quizzed over McKinnon extradition

Obviously setting it up for the future

Should any past or present leaders get sentenced at the Hague for war crimes.

Meanwhile if it is a choice between Strangeways etc or the South Coast of Cuba, I think I would pick Cuba everytime.

Judge says tech-addled jurors undermine justice

Lack of focus not just the young.

Once cases were put forward by reasoned argument and pros and cons were used to help people make an informed decision, then along came Maggie and her Spin doctors.

All of a sudden everything had to be condensed to one liners. It was no longer the done thing to put forward both sides of an argument and let decision makers make an informed decision, the one liners had to put forward just the one case so that it could be agreed.

This has permeated everywhere and now we have the country and companies run by managers who are promoted yes men, with spin doctors actually providing the guidance.

Unfortunately this was exacerbated by the opportunist NuLab to insidiate itself in every walk of life.

The youth have no chance in this setup, OK they can get lost in long computer games, but when it comes down to the lengthy imbibing of knowledge there is nothing to teach, instruct or encourage them. After all, recent UK history shows that if one fails to make the grade, the grade will be lowered.

As for Jury trials, we all know there is a five + minute ad break every 10 minutes.

IT contractor broke law in data raid on playground firm

So they changed the passwords,...

what's that? about 10 minutes to sort out if it is a windows machine.

If they couldn't then maybe they didn't have a clue and he was touting for business.

I often used to get a director coming up and whispering that I would have to block someone's access very quickly in a very short while. I just used to disable the user for a while until things became clear, easy enough to say the fault had been a hiccup on incorrect passwords if it ever came down to it.

When our company went into administration, the "computer guy" came, backed everything up and changed the system password so I couldn't get in. Took about 1 minute for him to see sense and tell me what it was. Then he was allowed to leave the premises!

Bryan Adams pulls a Prince on fan sites

Tribute! that's where music has gone wrong.

In my day the bands learned the songs and then put their own interpretation on them, often better than the real thing. A big let down once I could afford the records and found they were not as good as the local interpretations.

Nowadays it has to be note perfect - why?! There is an MP3 for that which is cheaper.

Two Passable Bands that did better re-interpretations spring to mind - Who, Hendrix

Jimi stopped a TV performance of his single to play a Cream song, but he did not do it note perfect, he did it his way! And would he have been so famous as a Bob Dylan Tribute act.

Come on lads if you are that good stop the tributes and then you can have your web sites back.

Channel 4 in Heathrow Playmobil reconstruction shocker

Blatant breach of IP.

The Channel Four action scenario, despite coming later in the game is obviously moving, whereas the Reg ones definitely aren't.

Therefore any further El Reg illustrations will be, albeit a frozen moment in time, a clear breach of the real IP holders rights and will result in patent litigation.

Whoops, sorry there, ignore all that: for a moment I thought we were talking US software.

UK.gov and UK.biz pour £60m into IT skills gap

There is no skills shortage, just ....

lack of intelligence in the management and agency hiring strategies.

I have been about a long detailed time and MS/CISCO specific qualifications are just that. Never had the business need or requirement to get them but now I need a job, I can't get past the Agencies because the employer insists on the qualification.

It is like Ferrari refusing to employ Lewis Hamilton because he has no previous experience of driving a Ferrari F1 car, and then complaining there is a shortage of F1 drivers.

Unfortunately, the old maxim "rise to the limit of your ineptitude" has really taken root in this country and so it is easier to complain about a lack of talent and have someone else to blame than to actually understand the requirements and invest in people who can actually do the job.

When I enquire about government IT training for the unemployed so I can get a job all that is available is the ecdl tosh..

Microsoft claims 'landmark victory' against defunct UK reseller

They snuck something in about IP violation.

It looks like they snuck something in about an IP violation, but if the chap can find his "old" employment contract it should state that the company will take liability and cover him in the event of any IP dispute. So MS can go back to the company for settlement!

I have always felt that if something has a price tag it should be the same base with only transportation and local taxes different so to me the pirates are actually Microsoft. and Corel. and Adobe-

On the IP front, Microsoft have taken their ideas from the rest of the world ever since they started, the US legal system allows them to have IP patents but do they actually have any genuine IP other than their particular products with proprietary formats. I am not so sure.

Gov seeks UK nuclear competition for EDF

It would be better if we did the whole thing

ourselves.

It would keep all the money and accountability in the UK, not just the waste material.

French bid for Brit nuclear sector back on

It would be better to do it ourselves.

We used to be world leaders, we could easily be again,

We have large housing estates in this area which were built by the government solely to house the local nuclear workers back in the 50s/60s so it is a proven possibility.

Why don't the government set up a "new"clear development team with a brief to design and build the nuclear reactor with the safest footprint.

Should the government then sell the generated electricity they would have some form of income other than fleecing motorists. If we over generated we could always sell spare capacity to the Russians or all use electric carts.

In all ways this has to be a cheaper solution than letting the French in.

Someone suggested that a later government could renationalise, but in years to come our UK parliament will have the powers of a parish council thanks to us being sold down the line.

I also agree that the members of government should be liable to be tried for treason, as it is they turn us over with impunity knowing full well that no matter how hard it gets for us they have their troughs sorted.

Chrysler plans electric car production model

If it is anything like my toothbrush..

It will be OK for the first year and then when the warranty expires the batteries will start to suffer only offering 200 miles then 100 etc all at a top speed of 15 mph apart from the 10 second burst of 60mph when you first turn on.

Microsoft will show world+dog how to write secure code

@sure

Surely it would be:

You seem to be writing insecure code.

Would you like some assistance with that?

MS and the IBM PC put back computing by at least 25 years, what's another few.

Vehicle spy-cam data to be held for five years

Don't like this new layout where you don't see the comment titles until you go looking.

Don't like this new layout where you don't see the comment titles until you go looking at the comments themselves. And there is still no update notifications...

BTW you lot, don't you realise it is now a "terrorist" offence to "think ill thoughts towards" Brown and co.

UK's top boffin: Renewables targets were 'a mistake'

Same loony ideas as the gas board then

According to them my boiler is too old and needs replacing with one of these new fangled energy efficient boilers that will save shedloads of money.

They base it on the premise that boilers should be replaced after 10 years.

Their calculator then assures me that the increased efficiency gained by replacing my boiler will pay for itself in 15-20 years.

I presume that such equations and tools are used by the government, who probably do not have the wit to turn the page over and actually read and understand the figures.

US utilities plot remote switch off

Zigbee's a mesh network

So you get other peoples data as well. Although it is uncrackable encryption.

Someone's slow; I mentioned this exact thing in the comments ages ago now.

The US utility main target is the aircon during the day.

Doesn't affect us in the UK so the UK government will probably use the technology to let local councils decide how many people are in the house and whether they are sharing showers or not.

Strangely enough the one use it probably would never be put to is to detect the high power usage of a suburban pot farm!

EC misleading EU on copyright extension, says boffin

Should be a couple of years at the most.

In the original days, music was sheet music passed to various orchestras so took time for a return of earnings. Fair enough. This was probably kept going as the first 78s were only played on a few players and again needed time for returns to come in.

Nowadays it is instant. Music is released worldwide simultaneously, the income starts at the first day. (and with most of todays artists stops at the second)

Hence there is no longer a need for a long protection period.

Contrary to the EC recommendation it should actually be shortened - 10 years seems fair but 5 would be better, or as aforementioned something on the lines of after 5 years copyright reverts to the artist for another 5 years.

Linux risks netbooks defeat to Microsoft

Lack of Visionaries.

I tried to install an old Linux application which was part of an old OS install that did not work on the destined laptop.

Simple exercise to install a current running version of Linux and then extract the application and put it on top, after all that is the approach i would take with a Windows app.

Not so simple unfortunately as it doesn't have an RPM or Deb or whatever they are, so although several new versions of Linux install and run a dream, I can't take the next step to get at the application.

I tried the forums trying to link up with some Linux experts who could give guidance.

This highlights the main problem:

The answers I got back:-

1 - You should only try that if you are a Linux expert.

2 - If you can load those versions of Linux you are doing alright, why waste time on the application just carry on using Linux!?

As I pointed out, in real IT installing an OS is never a major target, it is a(n) (un)necessary step. I think I was banned as no further help was forthcoming.

Until the general attitudes change and a very simple interface is incorporated ( you can have everything driven by text config files, but there should be a simple select option interface for everyone else to use) which is common between versions, there is not much chance of a massive take up.

After all, between windows there is a big XP or Vista debate, but with Linux, it is RH, UBUNTu, kubunto, gentoo, ooh ahh... etc. That isn't going to put anyone off is it?

Upgrade drags Stealth Bomber IT systems into the 90s

bits of words!

I remember being involved in a simple conversion exercise like this for a command and control system. Trivial.

Except for the fact that the old language relied upon 8 bits and the new fangled one used 16 bits so there was no data continuity and none of the automatic translation could be relied upon. I got involved when it was discovered half way through the exercise that a complete rewrite was required!

I am currently available!

Report fingers prints as ID scheme's point of failure

these prats never learn....

“cost and performance options, with a minimum level of acceptable performance”

is stipulated and that is exactly what they will get - A costly system with the minimum acceptable performance.

Prius hybrid to get rooftop solar panel

Solar Power is no use in the UK

As already mentioned they should be looking at wind powered solutions for us, or even a hybrid where the windmill sails are actually solar panels.

El Reg procures OGC mousemat

The picture backs the logo.

Aren't the two outside players watching what the central figure is doing with his right hand?

Brits confused by digital TV switchover, report claims

Complete Fiasco..

Take our area which gets very poor service anyway. The government think we are served by a different area for a start, which has its switchover date delayed till 2012, however we are not and our switchover date is April 2009.

Our repeater transmitter was built using a mechano set back in the 60s when Gus Honeybun and Henry Cooper visited on a publicity train to launch the new Westward service. It was modified at some point to add on the extra channel for 4 but has never managed a decent signal for it. No capacity for anything else whatsoever.

Various edicts have revealed that it would never be converted to digital and we would have to use satellite, luckily someone spotted that particularly as mosts of the listed buildings and apartments are not allowed dishes.

Next, the transmitter is being converted during one week next year.

Up until day one there is no digital signal available, from day 3 or 4 there is no analogue. Apparently this government forced changeover which requires every TV owner to buy a new set or a digibox for every TV AND video recorder does not come with funding to put a proper transmitter in place and so we will get Del Boys job which only provides half the existing digital channel packages and already has no extra capacity for HD or future expansion etc.

So if a TV breaks today, no point buying digital as it won't work so you have to buy analogue. Meanwhile the salesmen tend not to point out that for an extra couple of quid you can get a dual digital/analogue set.

Just had to buy one for my daughter and I lost count of the number of times we thought we had a bargain only to find that a model letter or number was different and this was cheap because it was analogue only or digital only.

Even if these clowns are kicked out the damage has been done and next April is going to be a nightmare. I have already been told by one aerial installer that I need a new digital aerial which he will fit for a knock down price of £180. It wasn't a come on, the chap actually believed it. If they don't know what is happening, who does? The government want locking up for incompetence.

Fired IT manager accused of venting spleen on organ bank

Forget the backup encryption password

As supposedly happened at 1 company I helped recover from an IT Disaster.

Turned out it was only a ruse as the backups hadn't been working for 9 months but no one had bothered to check despite the tapes being swapped daily and couriered to an off site data holder!

With all the publicity surrounding similar cases it is highly surprising that anyone is stupid enough to do this, but it could explain why my job applications get thrown out when they see IT Manager as the job title!

Two top posts at NPfIT are still empty

I can't find the ad!

I am currently between positions but unfortunately I know and understand IT. Does this automatically preclude me from the position?

Want to buy Jacqui Smith's ID?

IS a graduate worse than a GCSE student?

"they are a bunch of Arts Graduates" may refer to the BBC but the members of this government stopped ART education at GCSE level or O level as we used to call them, hence the collective noun "Arts Os"

BSA dubs Manchester second worst for piracy

Why do people advertise BSA

I got fed up with corporate directors presenting me with software audits to fill in and send back to the BSA so I did some investigating, particularly as the various directors went apoplectic on seeing the threatening missive immediately enter the round filing cabinet by the desk without even a first glance.

BSA are a commercial company and have no rights other than those accorded to any commercial company, eg if your competitor send you a letter demanding to know what processes you used in your business you would probably not answer it. This is no different to the BSA, which despite hiding behind such jargon as "chair of the BSA's UK committee" in an attempt to appear to be a public body with merit, is just another commercial entity.

I passed the info on to a journalist who wrote an expose which stopped the BSA in its tracks. The next year they held a much diluted campaign, but it looks like they are again trying their luck. It does help if you know you are legal, but under no circumstances invite this company to help you do an audit, go anywhere else, and if you can't afford the licences utilise open source.

Unless something has changed recently, when it comes down to it, articles like this are just free advertisements for BSA. If I wrote to El REG and said I offered a similar service for the citizens (many descended from real smugglers and pirates) of South Dorset, I doubt if it would get a mention and unlike BSA I am not funded by M$ etc.

Rootkits on routers threat to be demoed

Why so long?

If he was smart enough to develop this rootkit during the presentation, how come it has taken nearly a year to raise the issue?

Set-top box modders sent to prison

@crap by Mark

Bolleux, it all becomes clear. The b'stards have been destroying Great Britain and the Great British idea just so that GB can go forward in history as Gordhelpus Brown. Let's get the fridges out and go back to polling day 1979 again.

MEPs deny sports 'intellectual property' landgrab

Who keeps paying then?

I seem to remember a very popular fighter called Prince. Everyone in the UK used to watch the fights, talk about him, loved him even. Then came PPV and the chap disappeared into oblivion.

I haven't been to a live football match for many years due to the silly prices. They may mean nothing to the very highly paid city workers but it is well over a half days work for those on MW.. Similarly Speedway, stock cars - used to be very well supported, then came the price rises and away went the crowds.

One assumes that this directive is after protecting the periphery information about the event, ie you can't report that or tell anyone about it until you pay me first. The outcome - more money changing hands for the same situation as exists, but less people willing to part with the hard earned, hence the market goes down leading to higher prices leading to smaller audience.

Look at snooker (no one else does) used to be a boring sport until along came the hurricane who livened it up, some other great entertainers like 15 pint a frame Bill W, TV lapped it up, but then snooker got up its own with dress codes, drink codes, advertising codes, ad nauseum. Anyone apart from their mums watch any games other than Ronnie in the latest world championship? Even the TV people can't be bothered to cover it properly and it is the cheapest program to make. Our major local snooker club has just shut up shop due to lack of interest.

Darts went the same way, it was a man's game played with beer in one hand and fag hanging out 'yer mouth. Them blokes on telly were just like us but could hit the board more often! It was big business and the drunken exchanges on TV were good entertainment, they even wrote a song about Jockie Wilson! and then it tidied up its act. Now it is big business for about 8 players and the promoter. Most pubs and clubs here don't even have a dart board anymore. Again cheap TV to make, but even the World championships don't inspire decent terrestrial coverage.

Come to think of it, I can now understand why the sports promoters want to protect their ability to wring the last little drop

US beak pecks at RIAA's 'making available' filesharing attack

A better analogy?

Strikes me as more like watching a DVD and leaving the curtains and windows open so that any passerby could watch and listen as well. And if they have their own camcorder!

But I thought some of these stuff is so insecure that it would be like leaving the DVD player too close to the window and having some toerag sticking his own DVD in it for his mates to watch while you are out shopping.

Google crawls The Invisible Web

Never get rid of the B******s now then

I installed a tracking mechanism on my website to see who was where and when.

No matter what time of day I looked and cleared the logs, within 10 minutes the googlebot was back trawling the site. Due to the circumstances the site hardly ever changed so I don't believe we were singled out I just think they are programmed badly.

Sony's dinky camcorder sets the bar

Why ever bother with the rate conversion?

We all know that should the item come of for sale in the UK then the cost will be closer to the £900 1 for one rate. Maybe more once VAT is added!

So basically there is no point in the translation at all just leave it in the currency of the country and we can all go there and buy one if we want to.

I have been looking at a printer which is $45 in the US but £70 over here

Want to get into 10 Downing Street? Get a Lithuanian ID card

I remember my parents taking us to look at number 10

We strolled along , waved to the "coppers" had a look and left.

Last time I walked past downing street it was a massive steel fence looking like an ex-East German Border post relocated. So now English tourists are unable to visit one of the important national sights yet foreigners can just waltz in through the back door. I know Blair and Brown are a bit younger than me and "skooling" was starting to go down hill, but how did they miss the fact that Animal Farm and 1984 are works of fiction, not instruction manuals, unless they got the non-fiction tag confused.

Royalties are the admission price, Microsoft tells freetards

Ironic really

The worst PC design was the IBM, the worst OS was that of MS, however due to a fantastic marketing campaign the combo gained unwarranted popularity and developers flocked to the platform due to the larger available market which started the Tsunami.

I always estimated that IBM and MS put computing back by 20 years and I wasn't far out in my estimates. All this cr@p about software patents when all they are doing is taking stuff that was in the other OSs and platforms before the PC and re inventing it.

Still, the suckers (mass public) went with the US marketing guys and you now reap what you sowed.

SIIA slaps lawsuits on eight eBay Adobe sellers

if ony it was an extra 10 or 15!

I am after some software (not Adobe but they are on the same lines), Got an email shot to say it was on offer and included a free app worth £50.

Hit the site and got as far as the checkout with the total at $50.

I hit the button to convert to GPB and got rerouted to the UK part of the site.

Now the total has hit £70 and there is no free application.

Funnily enough there was also no sale!

Uncovered: the lost humor of flowcharts

I'd forgotten all about the DRS!

My best flowchart occupied an entire wall. When they wanted me to move offices I refused to leave until they sent a photographer to record the wall! The flow chart took a few weeks to get right but the program code only took a couple of days after that! Apparently I shaved 9 months off the standard implementation time.

I think I must have a touch of the same as old whatsisname as I had completely forgotten about the DRS range.

Cuba lifts ban on computer sales

Doubt if they could afford them anyway.

Had a great holiday there, but visiting the town was educational to say the least.

The public infrastructure appeared fine, with good main roads and money sunk into the tourist industry, but life for the locals was an entirely different matter.

They have a nice climate and a nice natural environment but the homes and conditions they live in are harsh.

Fantastic really. We saw one chap pushing a large drum on a cart and were told he was delivering the water for his "area".

One chap had already told me about his "flat": Most of the "houses" are on the lines of large containers, so if you want to build a house you needed land. You could buy the land or ask someone who already had some and do a cheaper deal. He told me he had asked the person if he could build on top of his house and he agreed and so he had started. He was living there with his wife and child but after a couple of years they still had no proper steps. One takes this with a pinch of salt but sure enough when I got to the town there were all these buildings with new buildings being put on top. As it was different builders and different material and the climate was so good, many of them only consisted of half built walls with roofs, no windows, and sure enough every type of contraption stuck on the side to allow access. Some had proper steps, some had spiral staircases and many just had ladders tied on. There were electricity cables strung out to the houses, but it is hard to imagine PC set ups there. They don't even have prams or buggies. When we queried it with the locals they just said the mothers carried the kids until they could fend for themselves.

One major problem that I didn't really like contributing to was the lack of amenities for the locals. Apparently our hotel beach was the favourite spot in the area and the locals used to come and have family parties on the beach every weekend until the hotels started squeezing them out. One Canadian Doctor on holiday (other bonus point is the lack of brash Americans) spotted a local child drinking water from a rock pool and it was pointed out that because the hotels are A/I even if they could afford it there is nowhere for them to get refreshments as the old vendors have been barred. She went straight to the snack bar and stocked up with take away burgers and chips and cokes and took them back to the locals. Didn't spot her again so not sure if security saw her.

If they want help with these new PCs, I would go!

Top security firm: Phorm is adware

Something I'm not getting here...

Just had a look at their site and they reckon that they will replace ads with theirs, am I missing something? If someone has paid for an ad to go on a web page and it is replaced by a third party then it is like fly posting and surely breaching some law.

Meanwhile does this mean that all traffic has to go through this link? Tantamount to saying that all cars in the world have to go through the Dartford Tunnel on every journey?

I get more confused everyday!

Apart from that there is another site that have a copyright notice from 2000 which grabs the trade mark Phorm (php-net) are they the same people?

Pentagon attackers stole 'amazing amount' of sensitive data

Not too far fetched

I used to monitor my 2 public UK based IP addresses and when our time came round on the Chinese address list we got hit by hundreds of probing packets at a time. All would go quiet for a while and then we would come up again.

Meanwhile we had one fixed public US address which was not associated with any incoming services, I needed it for VPN setup, but the log everyday was always large. Most of the entries were US based Trojans trying to propogate though and to give them their due, most of the US ISPs I notified resolved their issues, where as most of the rest of the world ignored them.

Assuming the pentagon has a large public IP space it is conceivable that the numbers are at least this large. The trojans mostly just go through the numbers which would also explain why the new servers are targeted so quickly.

If they are just reporting firewall log entries to justify the resources used then fair enough but if they are actually letting the traffic through then they do need replacing.

BT preps 2000 per cent evening call price hike

Did I misread Option 3?

As I read the option 3 choice, there is no get out ever.

I am stuck at home making loads of day time calls job hunting so I thought it would be a good option for me at the moment. Then drop back later, but the small print says that you can never downgrade to option 1 or 2 after the minimum contract period.

I am also at a loss as to why this government have made it legal for companies which provide a chargeable service to hive off their exchequer unit into a legally separate company and charge end customers for the privilege. It is no more than loan sharking with a ridiculously high APR.

If it was anything like my previous plc company, the workers were completely unaware of which trading company their current action was for, it was simply a matter of someone selecting a different "company account" to be used for processing. However that was for our benefit not for ripping off customers.

Tis not only BT that gets my goat, I had to purchase some show tickets from the venue ticket office which is part of the venue and only exists to sell tickets to the events. I had to pay an unavoidable £4 processing fee for each ticket on top of the already extortionate ticket price of £30, ie £16 for 4 tickets and to cap it off another £1.25 for them to be posted, but I could have saved the 1.25 if I picked them up in person.

HMRC blows £1.4m on two-word slogan

The cry is there. It's up to us.

As i understand it the spokesperson was basically pleading with us to replace the existing management starting from the top (GB GB) down. I have just at last cottoned on as to why a certain person has been giving me the hebegebes.

Suicidal moose descends on Alaska

You missed the best bit.

"one of the charities that salvage road kill"

the mind boggles, but I presume they eat them as there is not much else you can salvage.

This is an opportunity we are missing out on in the UK as dead animals on the roadside remain until the bones are bleached.

UK teen is world's youngest certified ethical hacker (maybe)

Don't knock the certifications.

I have been in the business over 30 years, much of it at the forefront of the technology. There were no courses about as we knew as much as the developers. I refused to take MS certification when it came along as many of the answers were blatantly wrong, meaning one had to choose the option that put MS in the best light, which I decided was ridiculous. For over 10 years I have single handed supported 70 plus user international connected systems using MS software as well as Open Source where applicable. For 8 years of 24*7 the company total system downtime was zero. Specific applications downtime was less than 5 working days in total and most of that was down to a fire in the estate power supply plant building.

Now I need a job but can't get one as I don't have Microsoft Certification, Cisco certification etc etc. Still after 6 months I may be retrained so I can get a job in a resource desperate field like... IT!?

Well done kid, Go for all the certs you can get while you have the time. Later on when you are working, with a good colleague you will recognise bits and pieces and it will start to fall into place.

Microsoft opens Server 2008 licensing a smidge

Can see where this is coming from.

The restrictive Windows Server license was a major factor in choosing our web server platform, I could not figure out justification for paying loads more money to Microsoft just for the privilege of possibly having a more popular site.

I opted for Wamp but not on the "Server" platform and hidden behind a good firewall. Despite many, many attacks especially from our Eastern friends, the site was never compromised, although the latest version of Apache did bring some interesting new bugs with it.

S&M blogger outs web host malware attack

Have I been infected?

I was doing some testing on my internal website using ie7 and scoped the traffic to try and find a bug. I was surprised to find that packets containing my typed data were being sent to an external IP address registered to MS, even while the real web dialogue was going on between the internal machines.

Microsoft wins seven figure sum from distie

If the software was legally obtained why shouldn't it be sold elsewhere?

A distributor buys the software to sell on so if they have legally obtained the items where is the problem. They have had to pay carriage and import duty.

Is it more to do with the fact that the UK is the target mug market for the world as we are used to paying over the top for everything with the full backing of the government against us.

Fark attempts to trademark NSFW

Weren't the "hole in the wall" gang a bunch of robbing bandits?

Whoops: I understand it now!

419ers flash big bucks cashcard

Spelling and Grammar will improve in a few years.

Labour have announced that the quality of education in England will improve and children will be taught a second language at school (probably English).

When this raises the standard it will become known as the "great Labour Education Balls up".

Bloody code!

Reinventing the wheel time after time.

In the 70s I was told by an IBM employee that no IBM routine was allowed to be more than one page long as they couldn't be trusted to continue on to page 2 safely.

My company decided to use a high level language (and programmers) to write the OS as it meant more people could participate. They actually found that in reality it meant even more mistakes as poor programmers are poor programmers whatever the language. It only took off after a suitable core of excellent programmers was built. One day Ms will reach that stage.

These later "rules" are only rules to protect us against the worst all the time, both of programmers and compilers. I have lost count of the times I looked at the code generated by a compiler and had to rewrite it in assembler.

Video games blamed for England Euro flop

When I wer't lad

you could get a ball and play anywhere.

We didn't have league football down here but we often had games of over 20 a side, all ages and abilities, but as I grew older we started getting chased off the areas and pretty soon the only place to play football involved "real" teams, whatever the FA was called then and shelling out money. All "local kiddy" football stopped except for mummys boys whose parents were rich enough to support them.

New taskforce to discuss why more people aren't turning to digital

DAB Obsolete already?

I read that the rest of the world was moving to a different (and superior) technology which would bring their hardware prices down, capturing the world market and forcing out everything else much as the useless IBMPC did.

Apart from that, my car radio which is where I do all my listening does not even have cassette capabilities let alone CD, and yes it still works and does exactly the job I require.

As I have mentioned in the past I do not recollect in any manifesto that my viewing or listening was to be screwed if I voted for a particular party. Still now they've broadcast my details I have no doubt someone else will be doing my future electronic voting for me.